BELGIUM - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: agreement on social security - general information

You are leaving Belgium and are going to live in the United States or you are leaving the United States and are going to live in Belgium.

Before leaving, you have to inquire of the competent institutions what formalities you should accomplish in order to preserve your social security benefits or in order to receive social security benefits.

Belgium has concluded a bilateral agreement on social security with the United States. This agreement may apply to your own situation, the situation of your family members and the situation of your survivors.

The agreement between Belgium and the United States regulates the applicability of the social security legislations of Belgium and the United States.The agreement between Belgium and the United States applies to employed persons, self-employed persons and certain categories of civil servants.

Besides a number of exceptions that are mentioned in the agreement, such as in the case of posting, the US social security legislation will apply to you if you work in the United States.

Besides a number of exceptions that are mentioned in the agreement, such as in the case of posting, the social security legislation of Belgium will apply to you if you work in Belgium.

However, you should know that the agreement only applies under certain conditions:

In principle, you have to be on the territory of Belgium or the United States.

You normally have to have the nationality of the United States or the Belgian nationality or be recognised as a displaced person or a refugee.

The agreement between Belgium and the United States guarantees that :

you will have the same rights and obligations in the country where you work as an employed citizen of this country;

periods of activity in both countries will be taken into account for the entitlement to social security benefits;

you will be able, under certain conditions, to receive social security benefits from your country of origin when you live in the other country;

your periods of activity in both countries will be totalised for your entitlement to social security benefits and for the calculation of the amount of these benefits, e.g. for the retirement pensions.

The agreement between Belgium and the United States contains detailed rules of application for the granting of the social security benefits.

The agreement between Belgium and the United States bears on the following benefits:

invalidity benefits

retirement pensions

survivor's pensions.

You will find more information on "find information", by selecting the criteria that apply to your situation.

Please find here the text of the agreement and the text of the Administrative arrangement